Police began descending on water protectors protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock in North Dakota on November 2. Common Dreams said images on social media showed the dramatic standoff along a creek that borders a construction site for the long-opposed DAPL.
The pipeline threatens the water supply and many sacred sites of Standing Rock Indian Reservation, which includes Hunkpapa Lakota and Yanktonai Dakota indigenous tribes who are part of the Great Sioux Nation. Also known as the Bakken pipeline, DAPL is an ongoing $3.7 billion project that aims to carry about 470,000 barrels of oil per day from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to Illinois. It follows the same route as the proposed Keystone pipeline that was vetoed by Barack Obama after huge protests.
The latest stand-off comes after Common Dreams reported that protesters were setting up to maintain protest camps over winter, saying: “As Dakota Access Pipeline construction quickly approaches the Missouri River, the Standing Rock Sioux and allies are vowing to continue their resistance against the pipeline — standing strong despite the violent arrests and inhumane treatment by police, and continued threats from government and industry forces.”
Below, Brian Ward reports on the latest wave of repression and mass arrests aimed at defeating the anti-pipeline protesters in Standing Rock. It is abridged from US Socialist Worker.
***
Police unleashed a wave of brutality on October 27 against Native American water protectors in Standing Rock, North Dakota, who had recently moved their encampment directly in the path of DAPL construction.
Protectors were maced and beaten at the hands of the police and 141 people were arrested.
This latest assault on protesters comes less than a week after another crackdown, when nearly 130 water protectors were arrested on October 22–23. They were charged with crimes including aggravated assault, taking part in a riot and resisting arrest.
These attacks come after a federal appeals court lifted a temporary injunction against construction of the pipeline on October 9. This opened the way for Energy Transfer Partners, the corporation behind the pipeline project, to resume construction. But the water protectors have vowed to keep up their protest. Protectors set up barricades with cars and old tires to try to stop officials from moving in.
Officials claim that the protectors are violent, but it has been the police, private security and National Guard forces who have repeatedly attacked. On October 27, about 300 highly militarised police with armoured vehicles and riot gear reportedly joined with 80 military personnel and 150 DAPL workers to unleash rubber bullets and bean bag rounds on the water protectors.
More than 40 protesters suffered injuries, including welts and broken bones, Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault II said on October 29. Reports say that the Morton County Sheriff’s Department personnel have been strip-searching every arrestee.
The state’s protection of a private pipeline instead of the Lakota people’s treaty rights is reminiscent of the history of the US Cavalry, which trampled Native treaty rights across the plains.
In the days leading up to the latest arrests, prominent activists, including actors Mark Ruffalo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Susan Sarandon and Shailene Woodley, along with Reverend Jesse Jackson, travelled to Standing Rock in support of the protest against DAPL. This has helped bring some much-needed media attention to the ongoing protest, which has suffered from a media blackout in the mainstream press.
Tara Houska, the national campaigns director for the Native activist group Honor the Earth, described the brutality on Democracy Now!: “There were police walking around everywhere with assault rifles. Directly across from us, there was actually a policeman holding his rifle trained on us, directly on us. Bean bag rifle assault — bean bag non-lethal weapons were also aimed at us.
“Every time we put our hands up, they’d put them down. As soon as our hands came down, they would aim back at us. Police officers were smiling at us as they were doing these things. There were police officers filming this, laughing, as they — as human beings were being attacked, being maced.
“I mean, it was a nightmarish scene. And it should be a shame to the federal government, it should be a shame to the American people, that this is happening within US borders to Indigenous people and to our allies, to all people that are trying to protect water.
“Yesterday was a really shameful moment for this country and where we stand.”
Videos of the scene resembled a war zone. While the tensions were high, a herd of buffalo came around the hill and protesters stopped and watched in awe. It was a powerful symbolic moment — historically, buffalo were slaughtered by the US government because they were a primary source of food and a sacred symbol to the Lakota.
As the police closed in on the water protectors, they drew inspiration from the Black Lives Matter movement, chanting: “Hands up, don’t shoot”. Black Lives Matter activists have expressed their support for the Standing Rock protesters — sending a delegation to Standing Rock and calling for renewed solidarity in the wake of the recent repression.
This solidarity is growing. Among those calling for support of the Standing Rock water protectors are Palestinian rights supporters and several trade unions, including the Communications Workers of America and National Nurses United. This is despite a shameful defence of DAPL by AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka.
In the wake of the latest attack on the Standing Rock protesters, activists in several cities have begun to organise small but important solidarity demonstrations and the passage of resolutions in support of the protesters.
Activists are calling on the Obama administration to step in more forcefully on the side of the protesters. So far, the administration has largely waffled — although it is feeling the pressure from activists. It recently renewed calls for Energy Transfer Partners to “voluntarily” halt construction.
On October 25, the Justice Department, Department of Interior and Department of the Army reiterated the call for Energy Transfer Partners to voluntarily cease construction in the 20-mile corridor leading to the pipeline's proposed crossing at the Missouri River.
Legally, the pipeline should not be built underneath the Missouri river while waiting on an environmental report. However, the pipeline’s backers want to complete as much construction as possible before winter starts and temperatures become too frigid for building.
With the presidential election only days away, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has been largely silent about the pipeline and the protests against it. Meanwhile Donald Trump’s campaign, it was recently revealed, has received US$100,000 from the CEO of Energy Transfer Partners.
On October 27, the Clinton campaign released a statement for the first time about the pipeline and the protests — but it refuses to take a side. Calling vaguely for “respect” for protesters’ rights, the statement emphasises that “all voices should be heard” — as though the conflict between Energy Transfer Partner's profits and protesters’ right to clean water are somehow equivalent.
It states: “We received a letter today from representatives of the tribes protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. From the beginning of this campaign, Secretary Clinton has been clear that she thinks all voices should be heard and all views considered in federal infrastructure projects.
“Now, all of the parties involved — including the federal government, the pipeline company and contractors, the state of North Dakota, and the tribes — need to find a path forward that serves the broadest public interest.
“As that happens, it's important that on the ground in North Dakota, everyone respects demonstrators' rights to protest peacefully, and workers' rights to do their jobs safely.”
Ruth Hopkins, a Dakota-Lakota Sioux writer for Indian Country Today Media Network, said of the Clinton statement: “What a crock.”
Co-founder of climate action group 350.org Bill McKibben tweeted: “Hillary Clinton managed to make a statement about the Dakota Pipeline that literally says nothing.”
On the left wing of the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders has been outspoken against the pipeline and has called on Obama to stop it. It is good that Sanders has spoken out, but his call to vote for Clinton as the “lesser evil” helps blunt criticism of Clinton’s stand.
The water protectors are making sure that Clinton faces pressure on the issue. On October 27, young protesters from camp Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires and the Standing Rock Sioux Nation flew from the encampment to Clinton’s campaign headquarters in New York. The campaign refused to meet with the delegation of water protectors, who responded by setting up a tipi in the middle of Clinton’s headquarters.
“As a young person I want to know what the next four years are going to entail,” activist Garrett Hairychin said in a statement. “Is Hillary going to be focused on protecting our land? I want to know if my younger family is going to be safe.
“Our present situation is in dire need of a leader that still remembers that our kids are here. We want to protect the future for the young ones that come after us.”
So far, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is the only major candidate to have taken an unequivocal stand against the pipeline and in support of protesters. Stein travelled to Standing Rock to join the protesters in September, and has condemned the violence directed against the water protectors. She pointed out it resembles the violence that Indigenous people have faced in this country since its inception.
“We condemn the violent repression of the peaceful protests against DAPL as human rights abuses ... These are not the actions of public servants sworn to protect and serve the community, but the unconscionable oppression of an occupying army against the original inhabitants of this land,” a recent statement from the Stein campaign noted.
“For hundreds of years, the US government has stolen land from and brutalised indigenous peoples across this continent, prioritizing resource extraction for private profit over the public interest.”
Ironically, on the same day as the October 27 mass arrests and repression directed against the Standing Rock water protectors, Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five other right-wing protesters were acquitted on firearms charges and conspiracy to impede federal workers. This is despite the fact they took part in a 41-day armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon.
The Bundys and their right-wing militia took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge with guns, calling on the US to give “their” land back. The hypocrisy is staggering: When Native Americans stand in peaceful protest to protect their own treaty lands they are maced, beaten and arrested. Yet armed right-wingers who take over public land are set free.
The fight against DAPL continues the struggle in defence of the environment and of tribal sovereignty. This struggle touches on the settler colonialism at the heart of the founding of the US and the historic genocide of Native Americans.
In the days and weeks to come, we have to stand united with the Standing Rock water protectors against ongoing repression from the state — and call for full Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.